Before he figured out he loved college, rapper Asher Roth was a self-proclaimed smart ass. The MC is the latest to be featured on MTV’s “When I Was 17,” speaking on being a straight-A student up until 10th grade, his former rap group Suburban Threat, and working jobs at Whole Foods, Red Lobster, and Best Buy, where he would slip his own mixtapes onto the loudspeaker.

“When I was 17, I was pretty clueless,” he says, with his mother Beth and high school friends sharing memories of the young MC. “I was a smart ass. Definitely a smart ass. I was such a wannabe when I was 17.”

Peep the vids below, and look out for his sophomore album The Spaghetti Tree, dropping later this year.